Smooth in the Crud

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Smooth in the Crud

While El Niño was busy stranding 160,000 New Mexican cows up to their udders in snow this Christmas, the wayward jet stream left my favorite Oregon ski hill utterly out of freshies. It was days as bare and bony as these that inspired K2's Electra snowboard.

The 162-cm version of the Electra carved neatly through the trees in powder and was light and crisp through turns. But it really stood out for its creamy handling in the crud, and - where my ankles would normally scream for cold packs and Ace bandages - it rode smooth as a Cadillac on icy cat tracks. Key to the board's silky ride are its piezoelectric dampers - smart devices - originally designed to smooth a space shuttle's flight through supersonic re-entry turbulence.

The Electra's dampers are used in place of the synthetic rubber commonly employed in snowboard cores. Like rubber, the piezoelectrics absorb and dissipate vibrations that tend to cause the board to chatter and lose contact with the snow. Lost contact equals lost control, which often results in the board's rider hucking down the hill on tender body parts.

Unlike rubber, however, the piezoelectrics convert vibrations into electricity that is dissipated through the board's core as heat and light. The "smart" part is that the units are tuned to selectively dampen harmful vibrations around 70 Hz, while leaving good vibrations, such as subtle commands from your feet, at full strength. Rubber dampens all vibrations; enough material and the ride can feel as squishy as last month's refrigerated carrot, while too little leaves a board that rips through turns but rattles like your grandma's metal roller skates.

Two LEDs in the board's deck let you know when the piezoelectrics are shunting mechanical shocks into electric jolts, but I was having too much fun grooving high-speed turns through packs of holiday skiers to even glance down. There is one missing feature, however: a place to plug my electric socks into the power grid.